The theme song of this magical day had to have been none other but Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need Of Love Today.” Whenever I hear him sing “don’t delay, send yours [love] in right away” I can’t help but to want to live my life as a more giving person. So, along with my sweet Uncle Laye, my little sister Jessiqa, my friend Humza Akhtar, and the support of many many others, I sent in my love in the form of sandwich boxes, water bottles, fruit cups, cookies, smiles, listening ears, non-judgement, and the most beautiful cupcakes ever purchased by another friend, Bryan Carroll.
There were definitely moments leading up to our small acts of service in which I felt overtaken by discouragement, but together, we set an intention to offer whatever we could to people with some unsatisfied needs and my heart is so happy that we saw that through today. It was a blast, and it also brought up from within me, a determination to refocus my energy on “people helping people” solutions. Because of today, I remembered how possible it is for me to do the work that I sometimes, if not careful, will find myself angrily waiting around for the people in “higher” positions to do. I became aware of the fact that I have more action power than I once gave myself credit for. I realized how the ability to plan, utilize resources, and have anything to give from an open-heart is such a power.
In the future, I see myself being apart of sincere non-profit efforts that I deeply care about, and eventually building one myself. Transparently; as someone that has by no means mastered positive self-esteem and that has to be constantly reminding herself of her own self-worth, it seems really silly to admit it, but I care about people, myself included, knowing that they matter. I hope I can be a person whose actions always reflect that.
Imagine feeling the lack of self-worth that we all, as human beings with egos, are bound to feel at some point, and then, depending on which demographic we fall under, being impacted by systems rooted in affirming lies that we may already tell ourselves. Lies such as “my needs/wants are not important” or “I’m not worthy of a voice, time, attention, love, humane treatment, kindness, etc.” There are few things that frustrate me and break my heart more than knowing how there could be people giving up on themselves because they’ve been justifiably made to feel less than human. I wish I could give every person losing hope inside of the prisons/jails, facing poverty, and/or being led to believe that their conditions gets to determine their worth, a big hug. I would mean it, if I had the chance to convince them that “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT TYPE OF CIRCUMSTANCE YOU’RE IN RIGHT NOW, YOU ARE STILL IMPORTANT. YOU STILL MATTER. YOU ARE HERE FOR A REASON. YOU STILL DESERVE FIGHTING CHANCES.”
For obvious reasons, I’m unable to spread my love so bluntly in this way, but knowing what I know about greed, and the priorities of the people that are in percieved positions of power, I also can’t bring myself to continue to look to others to take the actions that I’d like to see being taken. Today, I was enveloped in the spirit of giving, but ended up receiving a needed reminder about how much ability that I hold all by myself and in a collective of people helping other people.
A WORD BY, WISDOM